Originally Posted by JJeffrey

With a little flexibility 9,000 miles is enough to get a one-way award ticket practically anywhere in North America, relatively speaking. The easiest way to keep them from expiring is to just book a random award ticket for some date way off in the future, wait for it to ticket, then cancel it. Your miles and taxes will be refunded and your expiration date will be reset.

Originally Posted by notquiteaff

Are you interested in kicking the can down the road and keeping the miles for a future redemption? It's pretty easy to get activity via various activities - the Shopping portal is one example. I would just buy a $25 Starbucks card via the portal on giftcards.com and call it a day (edit: JJeffrey has a better way). I have orphan miles/points in various programs, and occasionally I get some value out of them when I need a night at an airport hotel or a feeder flight that is bookable with an award.

Or, if you know someone who is more interested in AA miles, you could transfer them for $45 (AA seems to have reduced the transfer fees recently).